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dogvomit [soylentnews.org] writes:

Groundbreaking [bbc.com] for the Giant Magellan Telescope [gmto.org] began with a ceremony on the clear moonless evening of November 11 at Las Campanas Observatory [www.lco.cl] in central Chile.

This event marks the official start of construction for what will become the world's most powerful optical observatory in the early 2020's. Ultimately the telescope will consist of seven 8.4 meter mirrors forming a single optical surface over 24 meters in diameter with a resolving power 10 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope. The GMT will be the first of several next-generation telescopes that are essentially guaranteed to challenge our understanding of the universe.

Las Campanas, located in the southern Atacama Desert in the Chilean Andes, is one of the best places in the world [wikipedia.org] for astronomy. The Giant Magellan Telescope Organization is a consortium of 11 governments, organizations, and universities.

The science case [gmto.org] for the GMT is a drool-worthy cornucopia of astrophysics, including formation of stars and planetary systems, properties of exoplanets (including their atmospheres), chemical evolution in stellar populations, dark matter and dark energy (including synergy with the LSST), galaxy formation and evolution, and the first light and reionization of the universe. The potential for observing non-equilibrium chemistry in extrasolar planetary atmospheres is pretty darned exciting with consequences that could reach beyond astrophysics to religion, philosophy, and policy.

The future of astronomy is very bright.

Original Submission